One thing that has driven me to distraction for years is the manner in which black Christians - especially many black pastors - have allowed themselves to be manipulated by racist white evangelicals. Here in Virginia, The Family Foundation ("TFF") - an organization that traces its history to many of the the white supremacists who backed "Massive Resistance" rather than integrate public schools - has played black pastors for fools for decades and turned them into TFF's trained circus dogs. Positions on abortion and gays have been cynically used by TFF to rally these pastors to support Republican candidates who once in office are enemies to minorities in general and blacks in particular. A piece in Religion Dispatches speculates that just maybe in the face of the Trump/Pence regime and racist GOP agenda black Christians and evangelicals are waking up to the fact that white evangelicals are NOT their friends. Here are excerpts:

But this new
administration has changed everything for George and evangelicals of color
across the nation. The fact that 81 percent of white evangelicals supported a
candidate who channeled white nationalism is not lost on minority believers.
Nor is the unending news of travel bans, appointments of white nationalists,
mass deportations and racial hate crimes. It has forced a reckoning.

Today, believers
of color are redefining their relationships with white evangelicalism in ways
that could dramatically shift the landscape. Already, people of color make up a larger portion of the entire American
Christian population than before, and church growth experts predict they
will make up the majority of the Christian population after 2042. And
their values are largely at odds with the white evangelical support for Trump;
pre-election surveys showed that nonwhite evangelical Protestant voters, which
included black, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific Islander Protestants, supported
Clinton over Trump by a very wide margin (67% vs. 24%), according to the Public
Religion Research Institute.

So while white
evangelicals captured the election, they may have lost their fellow believers,
the very people who could keep their churches, denominations and institutions
from the attrition that has many Christian institutions and leaders genuinely
worried for the future. These days, evangelicals of color are talking next steps.
Their endeavors run the gamut, but the ones gaining steam include leaving
evangelicalism altogether, reframing the evangelical world as a mission field
as opposed to a place for spiritual nourishment, creating ethnic safe spaces or
staying firmly planted in evangelical community to combat racism from within.
It’s too early to tell which will prevail, but the urgency and organization
happening within communities of color point to a fundamental shift in the
evangelical landscape.

Like these
evangelicals of color, in the aftermath of the election and that party, George
began to question everything.

For one attendee
of a California megachurch, the questions began after her pastor made a sermon
joke about how King Nebuchadnezzar’s Median Wall was built because he “got the
Mexicans to pay for it.” The audience roared with laughter, but “Jan,”* who is
Korean American, and her Mexican-American husband, ushered their children out
of the service. Jan asked her pastor for a public apology. When he shrugged off her
request, she was shocked. He had been a spiritual guide for years. He
officiated the funeral of her son. But now it was as if they didn’t know each
other. She resigned from her role in the children’s ministry, and her family
has left that church for good.

Jan is one of
many evangelicals of color choosing to depart from white evangelical spaces.
For some, that means leaving churches and communities while for others, it
means not supporting evangelical conferences or organizations that are
predominantly white. Many describe these moves as “divestment” from white
evangelicalism: they’re moving money, bodies and souls elsewhere.

“For
some people, the divestment began before the election,” says Dr. Chanequa
Walker-Barnes, associate professor of practical theology at Mercer
University and author of Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of
Strength. “One friend said the election was the ‘final nail in
the coffin of my relationship with the evangelical church.’”

She
sees firsthand how nearly “everyone is reconsidering whether or not they want
to remain under the moniker ‘evangelical,’” including minorities, white people,
the young and the old, “because the word ‘evangelical’ has been truly hijacked
by a movement to maintain the political, economic and social supremacy of
whiteness.”

For those
staying, they must contend with a dominant white theology, shaped in the
cauldron of privilege, which suggests that a successful life springs from an
individual’s good, moral choices alone. It fails to recognize how unfair
policies and societal structures harm the economic and social wellbeing of
those subject to those systems.

Those who stay
must also contend with a politicized evangelical movement fundamentally shaped
in the late 1970s by a desire to preserve segregation. As documented by
historian Randall Balmer, the religious right galvanized evangelicals into a
political movement when the IRS threatened to revoke the tax exempt status of
racially discriminatory Christian schools. Today, evangelicals of color staying
to “combat racism from within” are working against a deeply entrenched culture.

Shortly
after the party, George resigned from his post as the executive pastor of his
megachurch. After seeing the white evangelical role in electing Trump and after
that toxic party interaction, George knew it was time for a change. His
departure wasn’t a rebuke of his church, but of a faith culture that denies its
brutal legacy while indoctrinating its followers to perpetuate it.

“I think
evangelicalism is the empire that’s about to fall,” he says. “It needs to be
dismantled because it’s too powerful and it’s all about money.” Rather than
centering the needs of the marginalized and justice work, George sees a toxic
faith system that platforms capitalism, unsustainable growth, a prosperity
narrative, flashy services and pastors who hang with celebrities. To George,
“everything” is at stake. “We’re at the
part of the story where Jesus goes into the temple and flips over tables.”

I left the Republican Party years ago before I publicly "came out" when it became crystal clear that (i) being gay and being Republican were inherently incompatible, (ii) being a Republican was incompatible with supporting constitutional rights for all citizens, and (iii) being a Republican and being a truly moral person were likewise incompatible. Things have only gotten worse over the intervening years. Indeed, in my view, being gay and a Republican in the age of Trump is akin to being a 1930's German Jew and actively supporting the Nazi Party. I truly do not grasp what would motivate one to want to remain a Republican other than some sort of lingering internalized homophobia and/or religious brainwashing. Some friends will no doubt take offense at this assessment , but seriously, they need to take a look in a mirror and ask themselves WTF are they doing. A gathering of gay "conservatives" at a Republican gathering in New York City underscored the ugliness and moral failings of these "gay Republicans. Both BuzzFeed and The Daily Beast have pieces that look at the general misogyny that marked the event. Here are excerpts from BuzzFeed:

A forum at the Metropolitan
Republican Club in New York City on Thursday night was billed as an
"all-star" collection of activists in the "new gay movement in
the Republican Party." And indeed, panelists inside the tony brownstone on
Manhattan's Upper East Side were among the country’s most notable conservative
gay-rights activists.

But rather than detail how
they were building a new movement — or discuss their influence in the nascent
Trump administration — the gay men on stage spent most of two hours ridiculing
the left while peppering their speeches with cheap cracks about transgender
people.

They mocked President Obama’s
LGBT liaison as "the most unattractive tranny," joked that Caitlyn
Jenner hadn't had "the operation," and said Obama-era rules to
protect transgender students were “horrifying.”

People of color and women
fared little better with the all-white, five-member panel. One claimed the
gender wage gap was "a total fucking myth," while another opined that
black people don't face oppression because they aren't enslaved. Then he
laughed about adopted Asian babies.

This week, nearly 100 days into
Trump’s term, these gay Republican activists had a chance to assess their
success. Or they could make fun of
people.

“Begrudgingly, I’ll say
‘she,’” said Wintrich, implying that he didn’t consider her a woman. He went on
to call her “the most unattractive tranny," a line that cast the packed
room of Republicans into guffaws under golden chandeliers and star-spangled
bunting.

BuzzFeed News followed up with [Fred]
Karger about whether anti-transgender slurs and comments from other panelists
would actually entice young voters to the party. Karger said he’d tuned out those comments.

Sadly, such behavior is the norm for the Republican Party base: greed and inhumanity, if no outright hatred towards others are pillars of today's GOP. In my view, no one moral and decent - much less LGBT - can be a Republican.

The best news at the end of the first 100 days of the ill begotten regime of Der Trumpenführer is that other than some admittedly horrible executive orders and the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, the Republicans in Washington, DC, have accomplished almost nothing. Rather than proving himself to be another Hitler - he has too little self-discipline or core ideology - Trump has shown himself instead to be a version of Sargent Schultz from the old Hogan's Heroes TV show. (he even has a similar girth). All of which is good news for America given that so much of what the Trump/GOP agenda has to offer is toxic to all but the extremely wealthy or large corporations. Yes, there remain plenty of reasons to be fearful of what the narcissist-in-chief might do, but with luck his regime will remain a do nothing one and that his supporter's sole source of glee will be limited to no longer a black man in the White House. A column in the Washington Post by a conservative columnist looks at the GOP dysfunction and incompetence at governing. Here are excerpts:

The markets are
waking up to the reality that President Trump is not going to accomplish much
of anything, as theWall Street
Journal reports:

Markets
are signaling caution after investors greeted President Donald Trump’s election
with enthusiasm.

Bets
on higher economic growth, inflation and interest rates—which became known as
the “reflation trade”—have eased since the election. The yield on the 10-year
Treasury note is lower than it was when Mr. Trump took office, including a
decline Wednesday after the White House unveiled its tax proposal.

If
one had any doubt, this week’s events — a half-baked tax proposal that would
not pass one let alone two houses, another failed effort at Trumpcare, White
House bluffs and retreats on the budget — should have disabused observers of
the notion that Trump’s agenda would sail through Congress.

The
Trumpcare effort was the quintessential “rearranging deck chairs on the
Titanic.” For every Freedom Caucus member who figured he’d jump on the
bandwagon (the opt-out for states who could choose to do away with the list of
essential benefits), there was a moderate who jumped off. What did Ryan and the
restexpect would happen when they made a bad bill even less
attractive to the great majority of Americans?

Trump
cannot manage to devise attractive legislation or get down in the weeds of
negotiation, while House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) seems willing to
accommodate whatever group is currently rocking the boat, regardless of the
likelihood of success. Neither Ryan nor Trump can lead a successful legislative
effort. As a result, members of Congress figure there is little reason to stick
their necks out for either one.

To
a large degree, the GOP’s angst is to the country’s benefit. The national and
world economies are slowly recovering from the 2008 financial meltdown.
Unemployment is way down in the United States. If “do no harm” (or, as
President Barack Obama would say, “Don’t do stupid stuff”) is the watchword,
then gridlock and inaction may not be the worst thing.Not exiting from NAFTA,not pulling the rug out from millions of people who
got coverage under Obamacare andnot building a wall or harassing cities (for
refusing to do the feds’ work on immigration enforcement) are certainly
preferable to Trump “succeeding” on these issues. A tax plan that exacerbates
the gap between rich and poor and starves the federal government of revenue so
that it cannot make worthwhile investments in worker training, education,
science and infrastructure would arguably be worse than the current situation.
If they fail on the big, ambitious items, then small improvements in Obamacare
or the tax code may be possible.

[T]hispresident andthisCongress have not a clue how to
proceed. They would potentially do much more harm than good. They are prisoners
of extreme ideology, unrealistic expectations and their own incompetence.

Perhaps under another president, the center-right and center-left can make
progress on key issues. For the remainder of Trump’s term, however, thebest-case
scenario would be no new wars or new nuclear powers and the status quo at home.

With almost no accomplishments to show 100 days into his misrule, Trump has managed to do something few presidents have done so quickly: trigger and on going FBI investigation and four Congressional investigations into whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with Russian intelligence operatives and thus the Kremlin to throw the 2016 election to Trump. It's about the only "huge" thing Der Trumpenführer has managed and the good news is that there is no end in sight for the Russiagate investigations which, I personally hope will find collusion and treason and end the Trump/Pence nightmare for the country. A piece at CNN looks at the ongoing saga (read the whole piece):

Russia's
influence is currently the subject of four separate congressional probes, and
has led to the resignation of the national security adviser and the recusal
of the attorney general for the Justice Department
investigation into the matter.

The
steady drip of leaks coming from intelligence sources familiar with the federal
investigation has turned into a consistent stream of embarrassing news for the
new administration.

As
the Trump White House heads into the 100th day, House and Senate investigators
are on a slow, methodical track, pulling together the many threads of Russia's
ties to a core group of Trump's top advisers, all of which promises to extend
the steady stream of news related Russia much farther into the President's
term.

The
White House has consistently argued there is no connection between the Trump
campaign and Russian operatives. In an amusing exchange during his daily
briefing last month, White House press secretary Sean Spicer made the point
that overzealous reporters are seeking something that doesn't exist.

The
Russia investigations stand at a juncture now -- with questions of whether they
will turn out more like Watergate, which led to the resignation of President
Richard Nixon (a president Trump is often compared to stylistically) or closer
to Whitewater -- a fiasco which harangued President Bill Clinton through his
first term in office, but ended with no criminal charges against the president.

The
one thing that is certain is this cloud of Russia questions is not moving from
over the administration any time soon.

The
very run-up to Trump's 100-Day mark was dominated by news first that former
national security adviser Michael Flynn may have broken the law by not
disclosing payments from RT-TV on his security clearance application -- a
revelation not from the House intelligence committee, but instead the House
oversight committee.

We've
already seen this coverup behavior for the last few months: the number of
people who met with Russians who didn't disclose it, the information that we've
asked for -- whether it's Flynn, or Sessions, or Kushner -- that they won't
turn over is concerning."

Veteran congressional
investigators say the best answer is to simply not fight the inquiries, by
either withholding documents or distracting. . . . . The White House does not appear to heeding at least some of
that advice, telling the House oversight committee earlier this week that for
several reasons it would not be handing over documents they requested related
to Flynn.

The
peril for the Trump administration is that it now faces not just an active FBI
investigation, but two major, functioning Congressional probes and additional
inquiries -- all churning slowly in quiet, digging deeper into the Trump
campaign's ties to Russian operatives.

Meanwhile,
outside the Capitol, "Tax Returns!" has become a chant in rowdy town
hall meetings where Democratic and Republican lawmakers are bombarded with
questions about Trump's financial holdings that, progressive activists say,
could easily show Trump's own ties to Russia.

So
far, Republicans in the House and Senate have resisted calls to subpoena
Trump's tax returns. But House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has noted that,
if Democrats win back the House in 2018, they could easily seek his tax
returns.

The
100-Day benchmark is typically a victory lap for a new administration -- but
the parade of Russia stories from this fledgling White House and the
outstanding questions -- almost guarantees the story far away from its ending.

100 days into the misrule of Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer, thankfully little has been accomplished. I say thankfully, because so much of the Trump/Pence and GOP agenda is bad and threatens to harm average Americans, including those who were stupid enough to fall for Trump's racist and xenophobic campaign rhetoric. Thankfully, the renewed GOP to destroy health care for millions is as of this morning once again on the back burner. As for the Trump "tax plan" a New York Timesheadline describes the one page exercise in irresponsible behavior this way: "Plan
Redistributes America’s Wealth to Its Richest Families." Among those families, of course is Trump's own. The atmosphere that is net result of this incompetent and deranged presidency is aptly described in a New York Times op-ed this way:

"Fans of old TV series may remember a classic “Twilight Zone” episode
titled “It’s a Good Life.” It featured a small town terrorized by a 6-year-old
who for some reason had monstrous superpowers, coupled with complete emotional
immaturity. Everyone lived in constant fear, made worse by the need to pretend
that everything was fine. After all, any hint of discontent could bring
terrible retribution. . . . . Actually, it feels a bit like that
just living in Trump’s America."

What is most baffling - until one looks at and understands to white rage that powered Trump to office and his legitimizing of the same - is that surveys show that 96% of voters are happy with Trump's performance even though he has delivered little or nothing to date. A column in the Washington Post by a conservative columnist looks at Trump's inability to meet even exceedingly low expectations. Here are highlights:

As we cross the
finish line of President Trump’s first 100 days, no leader in recent memory has
benefited more from low expectations. A more typical president who tumbled from
an approval rating in the high 60s to one in the low 40s would be in a
political crisis. Trump’s current performance is only a slight dip from his
divisive norm.

A president with pretensions of rhetorical coherence would be
embarrassed by gaffes and mediocre speeches. For Trump, gaffes and
inarticulateness are part of the package. A president with high standards of
integrity would be mortified by a brewing scandal that seems to involve smarmy
aides and a foreign government. For Trump, well, what would you expect?

The president is particularly proud of the consequential elevation of Neil
M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. But this action invites a comparison. Trump’s
one unquestioned achievement consists of appointing another man who actually
has thoughtful convictions.

Much of Trump’s 100-days defense could have been employed by the pharaoh
who ruled after the one in the book of Exodus. The cattle haven’t all died.
We’ve seen less fiery hail. And pestilence has been kept to an acceptable
minimum.

[A]t least,in polling language, he is a “strong and decisive leader.” This is a conceit
that becomes harder and harder to maintain.. . . Consider Trump’s interaction with China. On
the campaign trail, the Chinese were currency manipulators who were too weak on
North Korean nukes. In his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the
American president got his first glimpse of the Chinese perspective and was
transformed.It seems the
case that one of America’s main strategic rivals was, quite literally,
schooling the American president on economics and foreign policy.

A similar picture has emerged in Trump’s dealings with Congress. When the
Freedom Caucus defied him on health care, the administration’s blustery threats
against the dissenters came to nothing. House Republicans ignored his tantrum
and continued their work.

Ultimately,
Trump is failing because he has little knowledge of the world and no guiding
star of moral principle. The best of our leaders — think Abraham Lincoln — have
been sure about the truth and uncertain about themselves. Trump is the
opposite. His mind is uncluttered by creeds. He knows what he wants at any
given moment, but it can bear little relation to the moment following. Who
really believes that he would be sleepless if the wall were not built or if
NAFTA ultimately survived? Who believes he wouldnotbe sleepless because of a nasty joke at his
expense during a dinner party?

Trump
clearly wants to be judged by a frenetic level of activity. But the issue at
hand is direction, not momentum. It is useful to undo some past liberal
excesses, as Trump has done. But negation can’t be confused with inspiration.
There can be no measure of political progress without a measuring stick of
political conviction. Instead, we are treated to hysterical self-praise.
Appalling — but, hey, what did we expect?

As noted in prior posts, Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer's "tax plan" is based on fairy tale assumptions and will result in huge new deficits if passed and throw the vast majority of the tax cuts to the very wealthy and large corporations. But one example is the elimination of the estate tax that currently only impacts married couples with a net estate of over $11 million. Average Americans simply get no benefit from a repeal of the estate tax, yet many foolishly support its elimination. Similarly, many working class whites voted for Trump and Republican candidates even though for the last 37 years most of the GOP's policies have worked against the working class. So why the support for those who are behind the economic destruction of these people? In a word, racism. The GOP for decades now has played off of white racial animosities. For an added bonus, the GOP and now Trump have also played to Christian extremists, LGBT rights being but one of the favored whipping boys to get out the GOP base on election day. A piece in Slate looks at this disturbing phenomenon which has no sign of abating. Here are excerpts:

Donald
Trump wants to give himself a tax cut.

His
new tax plan, aone-page summaryunveiled on Wednesday in the
last-minute scramble for an accomplishment before the end of his first 100
days, would cut the business rate down to 15 percent. Now, Trump isn’t a
business, but he owns one, and it’s not structured like a typical one. Instead,
it’s a “pass-through” corporation, meaning its earnings are passed through to
the owners’ individual returns and then taxed at the appropriate marginal rate.
Trump’s tax cut is structured to slash rates on pass-throughs as well other
corporate forms. In other words, if passed, the president will save himself a
nice chunk of change, on the order of tens of millions of dollars.

Trump’s plan would slash individual and business rates,
repeal the estate tax, and end the alternative minimum tax (which hits a number
of affluent households, in addition to the highest income earners). What’s
more, Trump would eliminate the 3.8 percent investment surtax found in the
Affordable Care Act, another break for the wealthiest households and estates.

Together, these tax cuts would cost an estimated $5.5
trillion over the next 10 years, according to apreliminary
analysisfrom the
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
. . . with $20 trillion added to the national debt by 2036.

This is just gravy for the rich: The large bulk of these cuts
will go to the highest earners and wealthiest Americans. More than 30 percent
of income gains accrue to those with annual incomes more than $200,000,according
to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, with 14.3 percent accruing to those with incomes above $1
million.

His
budget would slash tens of billions of dollars from anti-poverty programs; his
health care plan would leave tens of millions of Americans without health
insurance; and his tax proposals would blow a hole in the federal budget,
starving the government of revenue and leaving future Americans the burden of
attempting to re-knit the social safety net.

At
first glance, it’s an odd populism that takes from the many to give to the few,
that abandons the anxious and suffering in favor of the wealthy and
comfortable. But remember, Trump’s populism wasn’t just an appeal to jobs and
economic interest—it was a racial appeal.Trump cast blame on Muslims, Hispanic
immigrants, and foreign others; he pledged to reopen the mines, recover the
factories, andrestore the white male industrial
wage-earnerto his
perceived place at the top of the materialandsocial hierarchy.

If nothing else, the racial interests of white Americans
have always been at the forefront of white politics, a powerful force across
class and social lines. The collapse of support for all kinds of public goods,
from robust schools to neighborhood pools, is tied to the perceived
beneficiaries. When the majority of white Americans believed those
beneficiaries looked like themselves, they backed those investments. When they
didn’t, they rejected them, either explicitly or eventually under the guise of
“color blind” ideologies.

[N]ow would not be the first time that millions of
white Americans backed racial demagogues in the destruction of public goods as
a means to restore white hegemony over a smaller, more limited public. We
would, in a way, be reverting to form, extending to the country what has
defined those regions where race hierarchy was most rigid.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

The self-prostitution to Christofascists that I saw Republican elected officials engage in prior my leaving the GOP years ago pales in comparison to what now passes for normal within the party. The irony, of course, is that over time those elected officials who most loudly proclaim their support of "Christian values" and maintain the most anti-LGBT voting records are the same folks that one sees being arrested for child porn or sexual misbehavior with underage boys as happened recently with a strident "family values" state level Republican. As Right Wing Watch reports, two dozen Congressional Republicans took self-prostitution to new lengths when they joined
Religious Right activists in Washington, D.C., for the annual “Washington
– A Man of Prayer” event, held in Statuary Hall inside the U.S.
Capitol. Rep.
Randy Weber of Texas literally broke into crocodile tears and begged God to forgive
this nation for the “sin” of marriage equality in an effort no doubt to win Christofascist votes. Here are highlights:

Last night,
nearly two dozen members of Congress joined Religious Right activists in
Washington, D.C., for the annual “Washington
– A Man of Prayer” event, held in Statuary Hall inside the U.S.
Capitol.

Organized by The
Jefferson Gathering, which is a project of right-wing pastor Jim
Garlow’s Skyline Church in California, the prayer event was kicked off by
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan while Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Rep. Tim
Walberg, R-Mich., served as honorary hosts.

Over the course
of an hour and a half, 20 different members of Congress took to the podium to
lead the gathering in prayer, including Rep. Randy Weber of Texas, who
repeatedly choked up while begging God to forgive this nation for the “sins” of
legal abortion and marriage equality.

Modifying the
Lord’s Prayer to declare that “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth here
in the halls of Congress,” Weber confessed the “sins our nation has been so
emboldened to embark upon” and pleaded with God to forgive us.

“We have
endeavored to try and kick your word out of public schools,” Weber said.
“Father, we have endeavored to take the Bible out of classrooms, the Ten
Commandments off the walls. Oh, Lord, forgive us. Father, we think we’re so
smart, we have replaced your word and your precepts with drug-sniffing dogs,
with metal detectors, with uniformed police officers in our schools. Oh, Lord,
forgive us.”

“Father, we have
trampled on your holy institution of holy matrimony and tried to rewrite what
it is and we’ve called it an alternate lifestyle,” Weber continued, his voice
cracking. “Father, oh Father, please forgive us.”

“Lord, we have
gone to killing the most innocent amongst us,” he wept. “Your servant Moses
warned in Deuteronomy 19 for us to choose life so that we and all our
descendants might live. Father, we’re killing our descendants and we’re calling
it a choice. Oh, God in heaven, forgive us, please.”

Many of these same Republicans, however, despite last night's performance show their real view of true Christian values as they push legislation that will thrown millions off of health insurance, cut social safety net programs, take from the needy to give to the wealthy, and lie with abandon. The biblical Pharisees were upstanding in comparison. These Republicans are yet another reason that I do not want the label "Christian" attached to me in any way. A tawdry whore likely has more integrity and honesty than these political prostitutes.

Like House Republicans, Der Trumpenführer is utterly desperate to get some form of legislation passed and to change the topic of conversation away from Russiagate. Whenever talk about his possible treason and collusion with a foreign enemy heats up, something is floated to distract the media which continues to suffer from something akin to attention deficit disorder. Trump's tax reform proposal is a case in point. The fact that it is based on fairy tale claims and assumptions is not relevant so long as it changes the topic of conversation. The "plan" also underscores that Republicans have learned nothing since 1980 when Reagan promised that tax cuts would pay for themselves. They didn't and the deficit ballooned. An op-ed in the Washington Post by the director of the Congressional Budget
Office from 2003 to 2005 eviscerates Trump's "tax plan." Here are excerpts:

President Trump
is correct to press for tax reform, correct to argue that corporate rates
should be reduced and correct to look for policies that boost the United
States’ anemic economic growth rate. But the “rough draft”
of Trump’s tax plan, rolled out at the White House on Wednesday, falls short of
being a real tax reform suitable to tax-cutting conservatives such as me.

Proposing trillions of dollars in tax cuts and then casually asserting
that such a plan would “pay for
itself with growth,” as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, is
detached from empirical reality. A real tax-reform plan would include specifics
on how to broaden the tax base — not leave that hard work to Congress. A
responsible tax plan would not ignore the threat of increasing a national debt
that is already on an unsustainable course.

Accelerating
the pace at which the federal budget bleeds red ink must be avoided, and
building a tax plan based solely on the premise of future economic growth is
dangerous. Sailing straight into a sovereign debt crisis is not a pro-growth
strategy. What firm would want to headquarter in a country that is toying with
financial meltdown accompanied by emergency austerity and tax hikes?

Typically,
the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office analyze
the economic growth potential of proposed policies through “dynamic scoring.”. . . . never
has a dynamically scored analysis concluded that a proposal would “pay for
itself with growth,” and no serious economist would make such a claim. At best,
according to the prevailing consensus, the positive feedback effect from tax
cuts would recoup in the range of 25 to 35 percent of the cost.

Real
tax reform, however, takes on tough choices to broaden the base and is not
built on implausible claims for the impact on growth. Congress has a rare
opportunity to boost American competitiveness and productivity growth with a
sensible tax-reform package. But that package must be built on realistic
growth assumptions, not economic fairy tales.

Word around Washington is that the fractious House Republicans may be able to cobble together a new bill to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. Like its predecessor, this concoction would likely throw millions off of health insurance and allow premiums to soar for many even as disingenuous House members bloviate (read lie) about reducing costs, etc., etc. Frankly, only a total fool would believe the claims since the number one goal in the House is a massive tax cut for the wealthy. That said, anything that does manage to pass the House - likely on a pure party line vote - still faces sever obstacles in the Senate and not just from Democrats. As a piece in Politico reports, a number of Republican Senators may be the bill's biggest obstacle. Here are article highlights:

The House may
finally be on its way to scrapping Obamacare, but don’t expect the Senate to go
along: Any plan sent over will undergo major surgery — and survival is far from
assured.

The hurdles in
the upper chamber were on vivid display Wednesday as House Republicans
celebrated their breakthrough on the stalled repeal effort. The compromise cut
with House Freedom Caucus members won over the right flank, but the changes
will almost surely make it harder to pick up votes in the more moderate-minded
Senate.

“The Freedom
Caucus has done a good job of trying to make the bill less bad,” Sen. Rand Paul
(R-Ky.), one of the lead Senate agitators against the House health care push,
said Wednesday. “For me, it’s a big stumbling block still that there’s taxpayer
money that’s being given to insurance companies, and I am just not in favor of
taxpayer money going to insurance companies.”

Phil Novack, a
spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz , also indicated that the conservative Texas
firebrand isn't sold, saying “significant work remains” in the Senate,
“specifically to address Obamacare’s insurance mandates and enact major
patient-centered reforms that will further reduce the cost of health care.”

Sources say it
may take more than a month for any House health care bill to run through the
traps in the Senate, including internal party discussions and an analysis of
how the measure would affect the deficit and insurance rolls. No committee
hearings are planned because Republicans don’t want to give Democrats a public
forum to bash an effort they are not involved in. And similar to the Senate's
dim view of the House's proposal, the lower chamber may not ultimately be able
to pass whatever the Senate is able to produce on Obamacare.

Weeks after the
spectacular collapse of Obamacare repeal efforts last month, MacArthur and
Meadows struck a deal with new language that would allow states to opt out of
several key Obamacare provisions, such as its ban on charging sick people
higher premiums and the so-called essential health benefits mandate that
requires insurers to provide a set of minimum benefits.

The new language
was enough to earn the formal endorsement of the Freedom Caucus, but House
moderates who were opposed to the previous plan remain wary of backing a
proposal that could cause constituents with pre-existing conditions to lose
affordable health care coverage. In fact, the new plan may be having the
reverse effect on some centrists: Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) had supported the
initial Obamacare replacement but now says he’s a “maybe.”

Influential
Senate Republicans also raised doubts about whether the new House proposal is
workable. . . . Senators are likely to make Medicaid cuts less severe, deliver
more money for opioid funding, make tax credits for the middle class more
generous and rework the House’s waivers from Obamacare’s requirements.

In interviews
with senators across a broad ideological range, there was growing irritation
with attempts to ram complicated legislative language through the House and
expect the Senate to clean it up. Some GOP senators suggested that a bipartisan
bill may be the only way to overhaul the health care system in a lasting
manner.

“I don’t know if
this bill is better … the worst thing we can do is replace it with a
Republican-only alternative that doesn’t drive down costs, that doesn’t improve
access to care,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Republicans in the House are desperate to pass a bill. The fact that it would harm many seems to be irrelevant as long as they can say they passed something - and, of course, delivered a big tax cut to the most wealthy.

The title of this post tracks that of a piece at Salon that reacts to a new ABC News poll that shows that far too many Americans remain enamored with Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer, despite the lack of any accomplishments in his first 100 days in office and his continued lining of his own pockets with taxpayer funds. Just ending his weekly travel to the "Florida White House" over the course of a year could fund many items he seeks to cut from the federal budget. Sadly, the take away from the poll findings is that yes, many American voters are just plain stupid and utterly uninformed, especially those who limit their news sources to scandal plagued Fox News. Just as frightening, Trump's and the GOP's calls to racism explain much of the continued Republican support for policies that are in actuality directly against their own financial interest. Legitimizing these people's prejudices seeming matters more than policies that would improve their economic lot. Highlights from a piece in Salon look at this disturbing picture. Here are highlights:

Are tens of
millions of Americans really this stupid? If the findings
from a new poll are any
indication, then the answer is yes:

There’s no
honeymoon for Donald Trump in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll but
also no regrets: He approaches his 100th day in office with the lowest approval
rating at this point of any other president in polls since 1945 — yet 96 percent of
those who supported him in November say they’d do so again today …

Among those who
report having voted for [Trump] in November, 96 percent today say it was the
right thing to do; a mere 2 percent regret it. And if a rerun of the election
were held today, the poll indicates even the possibility of a Trump victory in
the popular vote among 2016 voters.

This is despite
all the lies Donald Trump has told and all the campaign promises he has
betrayed: He has not “drained the swamp” of lobbyists and corporate fat cats,
has not built his “huge” and “amazing” wall along the Mexican-American border,
has not returned jobs to the United States and has not repealed the Affordable
Care Act. Indeed, as of day 100 of his presidency Trump has fulfilled few of his
main campaign promises.

The findings
from this new poll are troubling. But they should not come as a surprise.

Political
scientists and other researchers have repeatedly documented that the American
public does not have a sophisticated knowledge of political matters. The
average American also does not use a coherent and consistent political ideology
to make voting decisions. As Larry Bartels and Christopher Achen demonstrate in
their new book “Democracy for Realists: Why
Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government,” Americans have
identities and values that elites manipulate, which voters in turn use to
process information — however incorrectly.

American voters
en masse are not rational actors who seriously consider the available
information, develop knowledge and expertise about their own specific political
concerns, and then make political choices that would maximize those goals.

These matters
are further complicated when considering right-wing voters. While Trump may
have failed in most of his policy goals, he has succeeded symbolically in terms
of his racist and
nativist crusade against people of color and
Muslims. Given the centrality of racism and white supremacy in
today’s Republican Party specifically, and movement conservatism more
generally, Trump’s hostility to people of color can be counted as a type of
“success” by his racially resentful white voters.

American
conservatives and right-leaning independents are also ensconced in an alternative news media
universe that rejects empirical reality. A combination of
disinformation and outright lies from the right-wing media, in combination with
“fake news” circulated online by
Russian operatives and others, has conditioned Trump voters and
other Republicans to make decisions with no basis in fact. American
conservatives do however possess a surplus of incorrect information. In that
context, their political decisions may actually make sense to them: This is a
version of “garbage in, garbage out.”

This is a crisis
of civic literacy that threatens the foundations of American democracy. . . . This
is but one more reminder that Donald Trump’s victory was not a sudden crisis or
unexpected surprise. The neofascist movement that Trump represents was an
iceberg of sorts — one that was a long time in the making. If this new poll is
correct, many millions of Americans would make choices that would steer the
ship of state into that same iceberg all over again. Such an outcome is
ominous. The thought process that would rationalize such a decision is
deranged.

Yale historian Timothy Snyder
has argued that a democracy has approximately one year to reverse
course if it has succumbed to fascism and authoritarianism. America’s civic
literacy crisis may mean that the country has even less time than Snyder’s
prediction suggests.

Even as the White House is refusing to turn over requested documents to Congressional investigators Politico has broken a story that suggests that payments received by former Trump BFF, Mike Flynn, ostensibly from Turkey may have in fact come from Russia. Flynn received these payments while involved in the Trump campaign and failed to register as a foreign agent of Turkey, much less Russia. Indeed, the smoke is becoming thicker and thicker and suggesting that there indeed is a fire that could take Mike Flynn, Der Trumpenführer, and many others down, if not put them in prison. No wonder Flynn is seeking immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony about the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. Here are excerpts from Politico (there is much more and the rule to remember is "follow the money back to its source"):

The Turkish man
who gave Mike Flynn a $600,000 lobbying deal just before President Donald Trump
picked him to be national security adviser has business ties to Russia,
including a 2009 aviation financing deal negotiated with Vladimir Putin,
according to court records.

The man, Ekim
Alptekin, has in recent years helped to coordinate Turkish lobbying in
Washington with Dmitri “David” Zaikin, a Soviet-born former executive in
Russian energy and mining companies who also has had dealings with Putin’s
government, according to three people with direct knowledge of the activities.

This
unusual arrangement, in which Alptekin and Zaikin have helped steer Turkish
lobbying through various groups since at least 2015, raises questions about
both the agenda of the two men and the source of the funds used to pay the
lobbyists.

the hiring of
Flynn by Alptekin came at a time when Flynn was working for Trump’s campaign
and Putin’s government was under investigation for interfering with the U.S.
election.

Flynn’s lawyer,
Robert Kelner, declined to comment. In a filing with the Justice Department, Flynn
said he relied on assurances from Alptekin that he was not directly or
indirectly funded by a foreign government. But shifting explanations and a web
of business ties raise questions about the arrangement.

Flynn has
offered evolving accounts of his lobbying work for Alptekin. In September,
Flynn reported his client
as a Dutch shell company owned by Alptekin. After being forced to leave the
White House — reportedly because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his
conversations during the transition with the Russian ambassador — Flynn filed new paperwork
in March acknowledging that his lobbying work “principally benefitted” the
Turkish government.

The
revelation of Russian business ties to the man who hired Flynn threatens to
complicate the White House’s struggle to escape the shadow of the FBI
investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with
Russian agents.

His original
White House ethics disclosure failed to include payments from Kremlin
propaganda network RT and two other Russian companies. The RT payment was for a
paid speech Flynn gave at a Moscow gala where he sat at the same table as
Putin.

A White House
spokesman declined to comment.

Alptekin,
in an interview, said he hired Flynn with his own money and did not coordinate
any lobbying for the Turkish government.

Siberian Energy
Group’s dealings under Zaikin were characteristic of the equity trades,
offshore financing schemes and consulting agreements that Putin’s allies have used
to protect and hide assets.

Der Trumpenführer seemingly has never heard of the saying that if you don't have anything to hide, then don't act as if you do. With Russiagate continuing to haunt him - and rightfully so - Trump increasingly has Congressional Republicans beginning to protest obstruction efforts by the White House. A case in point is the White House refusal to turn over requested documents relating to former Trump BFF Mike Flynn and payments made to Flynn by Russia. Marco Rubio and Jason Chaffez have joined the chorus of those criticizing Flynn and/or the White House. I continue to believe that there is more than just smoke surrounding the evidence suggesting possible collusion between the Russian intelligence officials and the Trump campaign. Of course, the release of Trump's tax returns could also shed light on the role of Russian money in Trump's financial situation. Mother Jones looks at the White House's attempt to strong arm Congressional investigators. Here are excerpts:

The
White House is refusing to provide congressional investigators with some of the
documents they're requesting as part of an investigation into potential Trump
campaign connections to Russia, and whether former national security adviser
Mike Flynn disclosed payments from Russian companies when applying for his
security clearance.

The news comes as Reps. Elijah
Cummings (D-Md.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) announced Tuesday that Flynn might
have broken the law by failing to disclose the foreign payments on official
documents filed as part of the security clearance review process. TheHouse Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligenceis
conducting one of two congressional investigations into links between the Trump
campaign and Russia. (TheSenate intel committeeis conducting the other.)

"I
see no data to support the notion that Gen. Flynn complied with the law,"
Chaffetz, the chair of the committee, told reporters Tuesday.

Cummings, the ranking Democrat
on the committee, said the White House is refusing to provide documents related
to Flynn.

"Despite all of these
very troubling developments…we received a response from the White House
refusing to provide any of the documents we requested," Cummings told
reporters Tuesday. "So we received no internal documents relating to what
Gen. Flynn reported to the White House when they vetted him to become national
security adviser, and we received no documents relating to his termination as
national security adviser for concealing his discussion with the Russian
ambassador."

CNN reported Tuesday morningthat White House Director of
Legislative Affairs Marc Short told the House committee in a letter that some
of the documents originated with other agencies and therefore would have to be
provided by them. He added that concerning the relevant White House documents,
"we are unable to accommodate" the request.

The White House didn't
immediately respond to a request for comment fromMother Jones.

I am of an age where I remember the Watergate hearings. As now, Nixon's unraveling and eventual resignation from office likewise began with acts like these now taking place. If Trump has nothing to hide, he should release the requested documents and his tax returns as well. The longer he fails to do so, the more many will believe he is guilty of collusion with Russia, if not outright treason.

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Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
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